Disclaimer: I own none of these characters.  This story is strictly fan fiction.

I am aware that Barbara's real eye color is green, but in the Animated Series, it's blue, so don't rant me about it.

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Chapter Four (Trapped):

Nightwing emerged from the hot temperature of the plane.  Robin was already down there surveying the ground.  Footprints could still be seen.  Both noticed the remnants of Kryptonite.  They glowed a bright green, highly noticeable in the yellow of the sand.  He saw a glint in the—wait… a glint? In the middle of the desert? Fat chance! Before he could do anything, a dart found its way to young Robin's neck.  He saw Robin stagger backward and lose consciousness.  The plane was long gone.  Barbara would not be able to do anything, only Nightwing could.  A group of people emerged from the cover of the sand dunes.  Nightwing counted a dozen of them.  So they were close.  Apparently the ambush team was big.  No doubt Superman took out a majority of them.  Bane must've alerted Ra's of the unexpected ally.

Screw gliding, Nightwing thought.  He fell down and landed on one of Robin's captors.  "One down, and eleven freaking idiots to go…" He smiled.  Unfortunately, the remaining eleven didn't find it the least bit funny.  They charged.  Nightwing cart wheeled over one, grabbed the guy and threw him to the nearest captor.  He jumped on the two.  "Quit laying down on the job!" he jumped on both of their heads and he watched them slip from consciousness.  "Two more… nine—." Nightwing stopped, because suddenly, the remaining nine captors were no longer unarmed.  AK47's were waiting to make brand new holes in Nightwing.  He ran to the right, dodging gunfire.  "Holy—!" He started, but it was inaudible.  Nothing could be heard but a series of machine gunfire.  Fortunately for him, Batgirl heard distant explosions.  She knew something was up, as she was already approaching.  She rushed to the scene.  Dick would only have to hold his own for… oh… say seven to ten minutes… fifteen at most.  Nightwing was a dead man.

Nightwing's fist slammed into a captor's jaw.  The fist was heading up, so up the jaw went, along with the rest of the body.  The AK47 went wild, and a bullet made contact with the rib of a captor.  "Head's up!" Nightwing warned joyfully as a captor looked up to witness his comrade land on his head.  Way to go, Dick, Nightwing thought to himself. Six captors cocked their gun at him.  The one shot in the rib couldn't move his aiming hand, so he wasn't exactly in any condition to try and have a go with the annoying vigilante.  Wait… aiming hand? Err… go figure.

One of the captors, apparently the leader, ordered something to two of his men.  The two lifted Robin up and carried him swiftly away.  "Hey!" Nightwing moved to stop them, but gunfire erupted from the AK47's.  It just missed.  Four captors.  A good way to demoralize them would be to take out their leader.  But when four powerful honking guns are aimed at you, it isn't exactly easy to move about.  If he so much as farted, he would have thirty new holes before he could say, "It wasn't me!"  He looked up, and gaped.  Let's just say Batgirl was directly behind them and was about to land on one of them.  Now… a girl may not look too threatening to the idiots, but a falling one might just make them lose it.  His eyes gestured to the leader, and Batgirl nodded.  Precisely four seconds later… ish, the leader was gone and the remaining three didn't know who to aim at, so Nightwing bonked two of their heads together, while Batgirl laid the other one with devastating kicks and punches that would have had Mike Tyson quivering.  "Nice touch." Nightwing commented as he looked at Batgirl's work.  "That's gotta leave a mark."

"Thanks," was all she said.  Nightwing followed the footprints with Batgirl struggling to keep up.  She liked to run, but in the middle of the desert, a mile would dehydrate you.  This was ridiculous.  They quickly caught up to the two, but ten other guys were returning after bringing Superman to Ra's.  Back to square one… twelve guys with big freaking guns… this was not their day.

Nightwing leaped, dodging gunfire, while Batgirl flipped and cart wheeled.  She ended her move with a kick in the face on one of the captors.  The guy was out cold. You try having a girl lay a kick on you in the middle of the Sahara while you're dehydrated from carrying a 120-pound kid, whom, by the way, you are still carrying.  Eleven to go, Nightwing jumped on one and kicked him in the face.  Simple… but effective.  Batgirl didn't get his strategy… she kicked one in the balls… okay… crude… but effective.  Nightwing raised an eyebrow, Batgirl shrugged nervously.  It worked, didn't it? One captor sneaked up on Nightwing and grabbed him.  They tried to throw him on the ground, but he pushed himself forward and flipped.  He landed on the captor, jumped up, and punched him so hard in the face that blood oozed from God-knows-where, and buried his head in the sand.  Panicking, the captor raised himself, but quickly fell as consciousness slipped from him.  Eight to go… Batgirl laid a beating on two as they tried to double team on her… six left.  Nightwing kicked one so hard that he flew backward unconscious.  Five standing.  One jumped at Nightwing while he was recoiling from his kick.  Nightwing and the captor were rolling down a sand dune two seconds later.  They recovered… or more precisely, Nightwing recovered and laid the sickest uppercut ever to be executed in Africa.  It cracked the guy's neck two times almost at the same time and then Nightwing, thinking the guy was still intact, elbowed him on the side of the face and made sure he was out like a light bulb.  "Sweet dreams," was all he could say.  Batgirl wasn't having too much trouble handling the remaining four.  Two of them were heading for Nightwing.  Apparently, it was their leader that jumped at him, and they saw what Nightwing did.  She spun and kicked one of the captors.  He staggered aside, but he wasn't down yet.  This guy was big.  He quickly recovered and threw a cinderblock punch at Batgirl.  She fell back and landed on her butt.  Nightwing, after taking care of two captors, appeared and he laid a gruesome beating on the big one.  "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit girls?" He said.  "I suppose not… well, I guess that's good, at least I know you won't be crying to your mommies after this." The remaining captor heard his remark and went berserk.  This was a threshold no living human crossed, and if they were alive, they wouldn't be for long.  He ran at Nightwing.  Nightwing jabbed him in the face drawing blood, but this was ignored.  A series of hard blows hit Nightwing.  Nightwing was winded but managed to evade the last attempt: a kick in the balls.  "Hey!" he yelled.  He punched him in the stomach… hard… he then punched kicked him in the knee, shattering his kneecap.  "That oughtta teach you to try and kick another guy in the balls."  Batgirl was already tending to Tim.

"He's been drugged." Nightwing said.  "How long do you think it'll last?" Nightwing asked.  Barbara observed Tim's eyes.

After a series of observations, "I think he'll be out for a few more minutes.  In the meantime, we're going to have to bring him along," Barbara commented.

"Well, no duh! You didn't think I was actually going to leave the kid here.  How thick do you think I am?" Nightwing said sarcastically.  Barbara gave him a look.  "Okay, so it's no time to be a smarta— I get it…"  Barbara agreed appreciatively.  "I'd better carry the kid.  You go ahead of us and see if anyone's coming.  Barbara walked on top of a sand dune and disappeared.  Huh? Nightwing was confused.  He ran up the sand dune to see if Batgirl had fallen.  The trapdoor went off and suddenly, both he and Robin plummeted in absolute darkness.

He groaned.  Batgirl was unconscious next to him.  Robin was sitting up with a sad look on his face.  There was no door, no air vents; just a few bones on the ground.  Apparently, this was a trap designed to lure unexpected visitors.  The only way out was the way back in, and the only way that was going to happen was to get back up there.  "Robin!" His comrade turned to him.  "Give me your grapple!"

"I actually thought about that.  But I didn't bring it, no buildings, remember? I left it in the plane."  Nightwing stared at him dumbfounded.  "Hey! You try running around with a tool that removes the balance in your butt." Nightwing continued to stare.  Robin laughed nervously.

Batgirl sat up.  "Ugh…" she said.  "Alfred? We're in a corridor, the only way is up, how do we get up?" The response was just static.

"Anything?" Nightwing asked.  She shook her head.

"Got a grapple?" Robin asked.  It was nice to hear his voice after you had to beat up twenty-four guys just to get him back.  She nodded and handed him her grapple.  He fired it up.

CLUNK!

It hit something, but it wasn't quite the top.  "I'll check it out, I'm smaller."  Robin said.  Nightwing and Batgirl nodded.  "Hey!" Robin's voice echoed.  "It's a platform, and there's a light up ahead."  Robin let the grapple's handle fall.  A minute later, both Nightwing and Batgirl were with the teenage underwear-on-the-outside superhero.

"Let's go." Nightwing said.  He led his comrades past the corridor.  When they emerged, there was a ladder.  Apparently, this was used to torture people, and there was another entrance.  They climbed the ladder swiftly.  "Hey look, a trap door." He felt a wooden door.

"Can't… it's pitch black." Robin piped.  Nightwing sighed.  Batman had to get these guys night-vision contact lenses.  He opened the door, and about twenty years worth of sand fell on them.  They fell along with it, but Nightwing caught the ladder again and grabbed Robin, whom Batgirl was clutching.  They made their way up.

"Hey… signal's back." Batgirl told them.  "Alfred, where are we, visuals are on."  Alfred and Batgirl conversed for a while.  "Okay guys, we're in a sanctum.  After a long way up, we're going to stumble upon one of the known Lazarus Pits.  The sand was probably a trap."

Nightwing crouched.  "No… the sand thing's too recent.  Whoever did this didn't want anyone coming in this way." Nightwing smiled his devilish grin.  "Looks like surprise is on our side."

Robin rolled his eyes.  "Surprise has been on our side since we got here.  Only thing we know for sure is… it tends to switch sides." Nightwing wanted to smack him… but ironically, there was a grain of truth in what the kid said.

"Nevermind that.  Bruce needs us." Nightwing said.  Again with the macho tone, thought Batgirl.  He has yet to get us killed, thought Robin.  That's two more brownie points for me, thought Nightwing (*looks around* ok, that's not what he was really thinking; what he was thinking was: we've got to hurry).  They climbed the ladder.  Nightwing popped open the second of the trap doors.  Eighty ninjas with big honking whacking sticks turned around.  Nightwing just stared.  Batgirl followed him, not noticing the ninjas because of the dead silence.  She was turned around helping Robin up.  Robin propped himself up and looked past Batgirl.  His eyes widened.  Batgirl was brushing herself from dust, which should've been the least of her worries.  Robin tapped her and brought her attention to the eighty ninjas with the sticks.  She gaped and said a very disrespectful word.  Nightwing just nodded.  Robin waved at them… wait… what? The idiot! A loud voice sounded, disrupting the silence.

"Well, well, if it isn't the detective's minions." Ra's said.  "Get them."

Okay, flash back to last paragraph.  Remember when there was deadly silence? Yeah? Well screw that, all hell just broke lose…  the three vigilantes fought valiantly, switching to killing blows rather than being careful.  Let's face it, when you're fighting someone with a big honking stick… you're not worried that the other guy might get hurt.  Bruce was shackled to the wall and cheered the three on.  Soon, Ra's grew tired of his voice and punched him in the face.  Bruce's nose bled freely.  The three eventually took twenty out when they began to tire.  Nightwing picked up a stick and so did the other two.  He pinned three against the wall as the other two began whacking ninjas with their stick.  Nightwing knocked the three out cold one by one but was quickly surrounded by others.  Robin was tossed over the crowd next to Nightwing and the same was done to Batgirl.  Time for one last stand, they thought.  A war cry erupted from all three as they went berserk.  Already tired, their movements were slower than normal and their chances of winning were smaller than when they started out.  Robin was clobbered around by five ninjas as if he was a piece of pillow that needed the stuffing punched out.  Batgirl fell and was kicked aside by several ninjas.  Nightwing continued to hold his own for a while, choosing to pick his fights.  He saw Batgirl bleeding on the floor.  "No!" He screamed.  "You son of a bit—." He didn't finish because two ninjas without sticks jumped him then tackled him to the ground.  He lay there winded getting pounded.  He elbowed one in the face and tossed him aside.  He got up, ignoring the pain and jumped to get to Batgirl.  He tried to fight off the ninjas, but it was no use.  Eventually, his bruises, cuts, and scratches slowed him down to the point where his punches weren't doing anything, and if he tried to kick, he'd fall.  They tossed him aside like a rag doll.  He landed next to a door.  His eyes filled with tears as he saw his two comrades lose their flicker of consciousness.  Soon, they would find him.  He rolled out the door and moved as fast as he could.  He needed help.  He needed Superman…